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Agric Director at the Lower Manya Krobo office of the Department of Agric, Mr. Alex Fordjour, has described the one District, One warehouse programme as a good initiative for the farmers and a precious asset which farmers have long waited for.
President Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo last Wednesday rolled out the government’s one district, one warehouse program with a sod cutting ceremony for work to begin on the first warehouse project in Ajura in the Ashanti Region.
The Director attributed the need for warehouses to the issue of post-harvest losses suffered by farmers. He regretted the situation where farmers harvested their crops but the produce waited very long for distribution because distributors lived a far distance from where the farms were located. This, he argued led to the unfortunate cases whereby farmers dried their produce for unnecessarily long periods of time before selling.
Mr. Fordjour added that farmers need the right value chain including the lack of labours, good road networks, access to vehicles to convey the farm produce, good packaging, etc to succeed in their businesses, the absence of which the need for warehouses is critical.
He added that the lack of some of these factors could result in decreased yields before the produce arrives for distributions, adding that these contribute to the post-harvest losses suffered by most farmers.
Moreover, most farm produce also decay during the value chain due to factors such as poor packaging in sacks, improper drying, bad road networks, ets. which result in severe losses to the farmer.
By: Nana Ama Sarfo | ritefmonline.org
